The situation of our offense as a whole

Alright so we all know that this offseason consisted of giving a complete overhaul on our offense due to the conservative nature of our coaching staff and maybe some negative feedback from the fans with relying on feeding Jackson the ball at one end, making short passes that turn into dropped catches the other way, and our issues of inadequate red zone TDs that turn into FGs.

We've lost Shurmur to the Browns, who could've molded Bradford even more to the WCO playbook in terms of depth. We choose Josh McDaniels over Brad Childress, which forces Bradford to learn a playbook back from square 1 but his familiarity with the spread from his Sooner days as well as his natural, mental talent could make this situation a minor problem.

So what am I worried about?

Josh McDaniels has two years in his contract to fulfill his duties as an offensive coordinator, my problem comes after the post-McDaniels era where we might be put in a situation of what system we are going to utilize? I am worried about this on behalf of the draft picks we made, which were considered reaches but look to patch up that hole in our offense known as red zone inefficiencies, dropsies, and poor route running. Will we make Nolan Cromwell the one to absorb most of the knowledge in the spread playbook and become a reliable offensive coordinator, and/or will Spags evolve into a complete HC with both an aggressive defense (4-3 blitz happy D) and offense philosophy (spread, pass-happy minded)?

I'd really hate to force Bradford into learning a new system two years from now seeing what he's going through just by learning McDaniels's offense alone. I want Bradford to become a spread QB because that's where his talents can bloom the best at. If we were to let him learn another new system, we could put him at high risk of being Alex Smith'd and that mojo of his will disappear fast if we're going to follow the path the Whiners took on Alex Smith. The problem also comes with the WRs we've invested who look best at running the spread and their value would be potentially diminished if they have to run new routes in a different system.

This is just a thought that comes in mind and I do have confidence in our FO of having a plan two years later but I want to hear your views on this.

Re: The situation of our offense as a whole

I've thought about some of these things too, but there's a few bullet points you gotta keep in mind:

-Its of course not a given McDaniels will be gone after those two years. Who knows, maybe we set the world on fire this year and McDaniels gets a nice extension after the season. The knock on him currently is that he was a failure as a head coach. He has had tremendous success as a coordinator, but as a head coach he took a talented Broncos team and for lack of a better phrase, turned them into losers. Any team looking for a new head coach that looks at McDaniels will consider this. Who knows? McD himself might not want to leave to be another teams' HC after what he experienced. As a fan, I was extremely satisfied in McD's hiring over Childress. That guy looks like a creep and he probably smells. But I digress.

-Even if McD does eventually take his talents elsewhere, who says we have to run a completely different offense than his? It wouldn't be impossible for Spags and Billy D to bring a guy in, show him what the Rams would like him to do, show him what was successful, and go from there by letting him mix in his own things with the McD spread. This is what the difference is in having stability at the head coach position during a change over in coordinators, and the change over of whole new regimes. (Which is what Alex Smith went through)

-Alex Smith is a talentless hack, and would have never developed into a franchise QB in the first place, nor does he possess an iota of the talent Sam Bradford has in his pinky. But again, I digress.

Re: The situation of our offense as a whole

Well said Fett, well said.

Here's my take. Josh McDaniels grew up before our very eyes in the Cheatriot system. Before he was even the coordinator, he was calling Tom Brady's plays. Then, once he took over more duties as coordinator, he gets a shot running the whole thing in Denver. Everything goes downhill, and he gets rid of their top three offensive weapons in Marshall, Cutler and Sheffler. He regresses breakout rookie Royal and to the bitter opposite of his predecessor, can't find a good RB to save his life.

Never the less, he takes the winnings from trading Cutler, puts together some wideouts who can play his system and fashions a top ten passing attack in his second year with parts from everyone else's scrap bin, really. Brandon Lloyd? Leads the NFL in receiving? If McDaniels can get HIM to have #1 numbers, don't you think that he can get the same production from Clayton, or DX, or one of the two rookies we just drafted? And that's BEFORE mentioning the galactic difference in skill between Sam Bradford and... Kyle Orton?

I want to put the challenge out there to everyone... can ANYONE tell me 100%, flat out legitimately that they think that Josh McDaniels is not capable to put together at least a top ten passing attack THIS year? He goes from Kyle Orton and Brandon Lloyd to Sam Bradford and Clayton/Avery/DX/Amendola/Pettis/Salas. Can anyone legitimately say that those receivers can't do what Brandon Lloyd can do? When the defense has to pay at least some attention to the threat of Steven Jackson on every play.

I didn't even get to the fact that by drafting Kendricks in the second round, it looks to me that McD just might have talked with his mentor over the offseason on how to use the TE more effectively. True, he didn't use the TE much in NE(didn't have a good one) or in Denver(traded away the good one), but maybe he learned something by watching version 2.0 of the offense he grew up on. Anyone think that Kendricks couldn't be the next Gronkowski and Big Mike can't be his Hernandez?

Now, onto the second aspect of the OP... what happens in two years? Well, there's a few options. One, teams view the Broncos experiment as a learning opportunity for Josh and decide to offer him a new HC position. One A says that he takes it, One B says that we give him a raise and he stays. Two, teams are still leery after only two years, and we resign him to another two or three year contract. Three, for whatever reason things don't work out and chances are likely that we're starting all over again with a new staff anyway, I don't see this happening. The team has bought in, and we're on the rise. If we fail, it will be because of injuries or bad luck, not because of a bad staff in my opinion.

Now, if Josh decides to go elsewhere, and eventually he will(I think it'll take maybe 5 years before teams are ready to go with him again, he's very young still), what do the Rams do, assuming that the system is working? Well, there are two options here as well. One, we promote from within, hoping to keep some of the staff that Josh had assembled during his time in St Louis. Two, we go after the source, and we steal some more staff away from New England in the hopes that eventually they can no longer keep replacing talent and collapse. I don't see us needing to have that conversation for a few years though at least.